House of Stuart

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House of Stuart
Scotland, England and Great Britain
Country: Scotland
Parent house: Clan Stuart
Titles: High Steward of Scotland, Earl of Lennox, Duke of Aubigny, Earl of Moray, Marquess of Bute, King of Scots, King of England, King of Great Britain
Founder: Robert II of Scotland
Final ruler: Anne of Great Britain
Current head: None agnatically. The current Jacobite claimant is Franz, Duke of Bavaria, a member of the House of Wittelsbach. The cadet branches of Bute, Moray and Appin are headed by the Earl of Dumfries, the Earl of Moray and the 17th Chief of Appin respectively.
Founding year: 1371
Dissolution: 1714
Ethnicity: Scottish
Cadet branches: Stuarts of Appin

Stuarts of Bute
Stuarts of Moray
Stewart of Darnley

The Coat of Arms of King James I, the first British monarch of the House of Stuart
The Coat of Arms of King James I, the first British monarch of the House of Stuart

The House of Stuart or Stewart was a royal house of the Kingdom of Scotland, later also of the Kingdom of England, and finally of the Kingdom of Great Britain. Mary Queen of Scots adopted the French spelling Stuart while in France to ensure that the Scots Stewart was pronounced correctly. The name itself originates from the ancient hereditary Scottish title High Steward of Scotland.

The House of Stuart ruled the Kingdom of Scotland for 336 years, between 1371 and 1707. Queen Elizabeth I of England's closest heir was King James VI of Scotland via her grandfather King Henry VII of England, who was founder of the Tudor dynasty. At Elizabeth's death, James Stuart ascended the thrones of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Ireland and inherited the English claims to the French throne. From 1603, the Stuarts styled themselves "Kings/Queens of Great Britain", though there was no parliamentary union until the reign of Queen Anne, the last monarch of the House of Stuart. The Stuarts were followed by the House of Hanover, under the terms of the Act of Settlement 1701. Members of various cadet and illegitimate branches still survive today.

Contents

The earliest known member of the House of Stewart was Flaald I (Flaald the Seneschal), an 11th century Breton follower of the Lord of Dol and Combourg. Flaald and his immediate descendants held the hereditary and honorary post of Dapifer (food bearer) in the Lord of Dol's household. His grandson Flaald II was a supporter of Henry I of England and made the crucial move from Brittany to Britain, which was where the future fortunes of the Stewarts lay (including an evolving, longstanding tradition of intermarriage with the (de) Ferrer noble family, originally from Normandy). Walter the Steward (died 1177), the grandson of Flaald II, was born in Oswestry (Shropshire). Along with his brother William, ancestor of the Fitzalan family (the Earls of Arundel), he supported Empress Matilda during the period known as the Anarchy. Matilda was aided by her uncle, David I of Scotland, and Walter followed David north in 1141, after Matilda had been usurped by King Stephen. Walter was granted land in Renfrewshire and the position of Lord High Steward. Malcolm IV made the position hereditary and it was inherited by Walter's son, who took the surname Stewart. The sixth High Steward of Scotland, Walter Stewart (1293-1326), married Marjorie, daughter of Robert the Bruce, and also played an important part in the Battle of Bannockburn currying further favour. Their son Robert was heir to the House of Bruce; he eventually inherited the Scottish throne when his uncle David II died childless in 1371.

In 1503, James IV attempted to secure peace with England by marrying King Henry VII's daughter, Margaret Tudor. The birth of their son, later James V, brought the House of Stewart into the line of descent of the House of Tudor, and the English throne. Margaret Tudor later married Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus, and their daughter, Margaret Douglas, was the mother of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. In 1565, Darnley married his half-cousin Mary, the daughter of James V. Darnley's father was Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox, a member of the Stewart of Darnley branch of the House. Lennox was a direct descendant of Alexander Stewart, 4th High Steward of Scotland, also descended from James II, being Mary's heir presumptive. Therefore Darnley was also related to Mary on his father's side and at the time of their marriage was himself second in line to the Scottish throne. Because of this connection, Mary's heirs remained part of the House of Stewart. Because of the long French residence at Aubigny, held by Darnley's branch in the Auld Alliance, the surname was altered to Stuart. In feudal and dynastic terms, the Scottish reliance on French support was revived during the reign of Charles II, who had an illegitimate son by Louise de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth. This descent received the main Stuart appanages of Lennox and Aubigny, as well as the main Tudor appanage of Richmond.

French connections were notoriously unpopular and resulted in the downfall of the Stuarts, whose mutual enemies identified with the emergent Protestant nationalism and urban mercantilism as opposed to Catholic feudalism and rural manorialism. The Glorious Revolution caused the deposition of James II in favor of his son-in-law and his daughter, William and Mary. James continued to claim the thrones of England and Scotland, and encouraged revolts in his name, and his son Charles led an ultimately unsuccessful rising in 1745, becoming ironic symbols of conservative rebellion and Romanticism. Due to the identification of the Roman Catholic Church with the Stuarts, Catholic Emancipation was not passed until Jacobitism (as represented by direct Stuart heirs) was extinguished. Despite the Whig intentions of tolerance to be extended to Irish subjects, this was not the preference of Georgian Tories and their failure at compromise played a subsequent role in the present division of Ireland.

  • Flaithri I (died c.1080)
  • Alan I (died ?)
  • Alan II (died 1095)
  • Flaithri II (died c.1101-1102)
  • Alan III (died c.1121)

see complication over official titles

Patrilineal descent, descent from father to son, is the principle behind membership in royal houses, as it can be traced back through the generations - which means that the historically accurate royal house of the Stuart monarchs was the House of Stuart.

Descent from before Walter fitz Alan is from [1] and may be unreliable.

  1. Alan of Dol, b. 1020
  2. Flaald fitz Alan, Baron of St. Florent
  3. Alan FitzFlaald, Sheriff of Shropshire, 1081 - 1121
  4. Walter fitz Alan, 1106 - 1177
  5. Alan fitz Walter, 2nd High Steward of Scotland, d. 1204
  6. Walter Stewart, 3rd High Steward of Scotland, 1178 - 1241
  7. Alexander Stewart, 4th High Steward of Scotland, 1214 - 1283
  8. Sir John Stewart of Bonkyl, 1246 - 1298
  9. Sir Alan Stewart of Dreghorn, 1280 - 1333
  10. Sir Alexander Stewart, d. 1374
  11. Sir Alexander Stewart, d. 1404
  12. Sir John Stewart, 1st Lord Aubigny, 1370 - 1429
  13. Sir Alan Stewart of Darnley, 1407 - 1439
  14. John Stewart, 1st Earl of Lennox, 1430 - 1495
  15. Matthew Stewart, 2nd Earl of Lennox, 1472 - 1513
  16. John Stewart, 3rd Earl of Lennox, 1490 - 1526
  17. Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox, 1516 - 1571
  18. Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, 1545 - 1567
  19. James I of England, 1566 - 1625
  20. Charles I of England, 1600 - 1649
  21. James II of England, 1633 - 1701
  22. Mary II of England, 1662 - 1694 and Anne of Great Britain, 1665 - 1714

  • Addington, Arthur C. The Royal House of Stuart: The Descendants of King James VI of Scotland (James I of England). 3v. Charles Skilton, 1969-76.
  • Cassavetti, Eileen. The Lion & the Lilies: The Stuarts and France. Macdonald & Jane’s, 1977.

House of Stuart
Preceded by
House of Bruce
Ruling House of the Kingdom of Scotland
13711649 , 16601707
Titles Merged
See Act of Union 1707
Preceded by
House of Tudor
Ruling House of the Kingdom of England
16031649 , 16601707
Preceded by
New Creation
Ruling House of the Kingdom of Great Britain
17071714
Succeeded by
House of Hanover
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